Norman Back At The Scene Of His 1986 Triumph

Courtesy of OpenGolf.com

Greg Norman's first Open win was at a rain-swept and turbulent Turnberry in 1986. Last year he came close to becoming the oldest winner of a major event when he led the field going into the final day at Royal Birkdale before being overtaken by Padraig Harrington and Ian Poulter, the intervening 22 years having failed to diminish his enthusiasm or his ability.

Norman: "I understand exactly my position, what my mind and my body can give me."

The weather in 1986 was foul, high winds and rain sweeping across narrow fairways and thick rough. A second round of 63 set him up for an eventual five-stroke victory. "I was disappointed in my finish that day, to tell you the truth. That was an opportunity. When I hit the 17th green I actually was thinking 59 was a possibility," he recalls.

"I think they were the tightest fairways we'd ever played in The Open. My memory is like 15 yards to 21 yards. That on top of the weather conditions, blowing hard and windy, was very, very demanding. As you go around in a situation like that, you really are oblivious to your score.

You're just playing well and going after it -- just want to dominate the golf course. That's exactly what I did."

A quarter of a century later he still feels he is in a position to win. "I understand exactly my position, what my mind and my body can give me. You always try and push those to another level no matter whether you're No. 1 in the world or whether you're 54 years old and going to play a few golf tournaments. You've always got to push yourself.

"I wouldn't say I could win on any golf course. I couldn't go to a 7,700-yard U.S. Open golf course, where the young swivel heads play, and feel like I can do it. That would be a big ask. But I can go and compete on some of these golf courses out there that, you know, 80 or 85 percent of them. I still hit the ball 300-plus yards when I want to. So it's not like I'm hamstrung by the fact that I'm only hitting the ball 250 yards."

He firmly believes that links golf always gives a better player an opportunity because he has more of a repertoire of shots in his mind. "I think that's the secret to it," he says. "The younger generation nowadays that grew up with the modern technology hasn't had the ability to teach themselves how to play certain shots."

Norman will have to dig deep in his own memory bank if he is to feature as strongly as he did last year at Birkdale.

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